Friday, June 26, 2009

The high-gloss stainless steel Ruger SASS Vaquero comes with the lower/wider Montado-style hammer found on the Ruger Montado. The SASS Vaquero, chambered in .357 Magnum, features a 4-5/8" barrel, a blade front sight and wider (.140") rear sight, and black checkered, hard rubber grips with SASS grip medallions. Each SASS Vaquero will bear a special serial number featuring the letters "SASS" as a prefix followed by the numeric sequence. These special edition single-action revolvers will only be sold in two-gun sets of consecutive serial numbers and will ship in a red, two-gun carry case.

So they have some nice features that will definitely appeal to SASS competitors and they only come in 4-5/8" barrels and .357Magnum. That's probably the best combo for competition as you'll not have much recoil with the .38 SASS loadings and the 4-5/8" barrel is short enough and yet remains well balanced. I myself have just this year added Super Blackhawk hammers to two of my Old Model Rugers to facilitate one-handed shooting and I really like them. I don't think they sped me up any, but I shouldn't get to many hammer slips, the bain of all Gunfighters.

The new SASS vaquero can be had for $1500 MSRP mid summer 2009 (I'm starting to sound like Jim Scoutten)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

You gotta love zombie films, they indulge our gunnie fantasies. Woody Harleson as a bad-ass with a mare's leg and a #3 black Escalade with a push bumper strangely adds to the appeal. Turn off the brain and sit back and enjoy.

Michael Bane has been shooting the SASS Wild Bunch match at Founder's Ranch this week. He's posted an after action report, who won what and what worked and didn't work (for him). I really like shooting Wild Bunch at the local matches and would actually like to see it become a category, but it appears to not be in the cards as I think SASS can make more money holding a separate match. Too bad really, I think they could attract more shooters, that's always a good thing right?

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Like most gun owners right now, I'm getting bit by the cost of ammunition, sure I reload in most of the calibers I shoot, but the way things are with component availability, let alone cost, I've decided that I need to fall back on the old standby .22lr for plinking and some practice.

On Memorial Day weekend, I was digging in the safe and decided I should clean up my Dad's old .22 squirrel gun, so I pulled it from the dark recesses of the safe and headed to the garage. My dad's old gun, a Marlin Model 99 .22lr semi-auto was (as I later found out), only made for 3 years, from 1959 to 1961 and was the predecessor to the ubiquitous Marlin Model 60, the main differences are that the Model 60s generally have provisions for mounting a scope and Marlin went from Walnut on the 99 to Birch on the 60. I'm sure there are minor internal differences, but the actions are essentially the same. I always remembered Dad as being a fairly good shot, at least in my estimation, I remember he, my brother and I putting a dime on a post about 20-30 yards away and trying to pick it off between us. I also remember being so entirely proud of myself for hitting it and spending a half hour looking for said dime, I carried it in my pocket for a year or more. I suspected he was sand bagging, but I didn't care much, I still hit that dime! I also recall Dad going out in the morning and coming back before noon with several squirrels for dinner that evening and how good a cook my mom was/is. A lot of family history is stowed away in the lustrous walnut stock and when I look down the barrel at the the brass bead front sight, I can imagine Dad zeroing in on the next meal.

My Dad's Model 99 isn't worth a whole lot of money, it's got a lot of wear and has seen it's fair share of rust, but I'll fight you for it and It'll be a damned cold day in hell before I sell it. This is an old family friend that's taught several men and a couple of women how to shoot, provided meals for a poor country family of seven kids and various other family members and until I dug it out that weekend, I didn't realize just how much it meant to me or my family.

Oh, did I mention you could hit a dime with it at 20 yards? Yeah, that too.